In what was dubbed an anti-corruption campaign, hundreds of princes, former ministers and prominent businessmen were rounded up, detained at Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton hotel and, in many cases, subjected to beatings and torture until they agreed to turn over substantial assets to the Saudi regime. The shakedown reportedly netted the ruling faction over $105 billion.

Bin Salman is also set to meet CEOs in Silicon Valley and the oil industry executives in Houston and to visit Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In the White House meeting, Trump welcomed the Saudi ruler as a prized cash cow, bizarrely holding up cardboard posters in front of the prince bearing photographs and price tags for US weapons systems purchased by Riyadh. Pointing to one contract worth $525 million, the US president turned to the prince and declared, “that’s peanuts for you.”

“The relationship [with Riyadh] is probably as good as it’s really ever been, and I think will probably only get better”, Trump told reporters before the meeting. “We understand each other. Saudi Arabia is a very wealthy nation and they’re going to give the United States some of that wealth, hopefully, in the form of jobs, in the form of the purchase of the finest military equipment anywhere in the world, there’s nobody even close.”

Trump pointed to states where the weapons systems contracted by the Saudi regime are to be produced, clearly seeking to exploit the deals for political gain.

Bin Salman delivered perfunctory remarks about the 80-year-old US-Saudi alliance, in which the House of Saud has stood as the principal pillar of imperialist domination and political reaction in the Arab world. He played to Trump’s money-grubbing approach, however, stating that while he and the US president had discussed some $200 billion in investments and arms sales when he was last in Washington, the Saudi monarchy was now contemplating $400 billion.

During the public remarks in the Oval Office, Trump was asked about Iran. He pointed to the May 12 deadline for the waiver of US sanctions required by the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Tehran and the major powers. “The Iran deal is coming up and you’re going to see what I do”, he said. The reimposition of US nuclear sanctions would effectively upend the agreement and set Washington on a direct path to war with Iran.

A White House readout of the closed-door meeting between Trump and bin Salman reported that the Saudi prince had “thanked the President for American leadership in defeating ISIS and countering Iran’s destructive actions across the Middle East.” It added that “On Yemen, the President and the Crown Prince discussed the threat the Houthis pose to the region, assisted by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.”

All of this US support for the one-sided war by the Arab world’s richest nations against the poorest one was initiated under the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama, in part to assuage Saudi displeasure over the Iran nuclear deal.

Before the vote, the Pentagon had waged a public campaign against the resolution, with the US defense secretary, retired Gen. James Mattis, claiming in a letter to senators that a cutoff of US arms and aid, without which Riyadh could not continue the war, “could increase civilian casualties, jeopardize cooperation with our partners on counter-terrorism, and reduce our influence with the Saudis—all of which would further exacerbate the situation and humanitarian crisis.”

Bin Salman’s visit and Washington’s commitment to both continue supporting the criminal assault on Yemen and escalate the confrontation with Iran received relatively short shrift from the US corporate media.